Crave

I can't help but cringe every time I get an e-mail blast referring to "special" gadgets made "just for women!" Maybe this is because I was around during a time when this meant splashing some Pepto-pink paint onto an otherwise unchanged piece of tech. Or perhaps it's more that many of these efforts are still so often misguided. Show me one woman who likes shimmery tech with an interface made of bubble writing and I'll show you another who loves matte-black gear that uses only analog knobs.

Now, I'm not accusing Audio-Technica of taking either path, as the headphones it's currently pushing at females do offer sleek, metallic designs that appeal to my eye (and I am a card-carrying member of said group). But I'm willing to bet there are plenty of men who would be plenty pleased with a shiny blue, orange, green, or gray set of earphones, especially ones with specially made loops to keep them in the ear. OK, I digress...it's Monday, and maybe I'm cranky. For an objective take based purely on specs, click on through to the gallery of Audio-Technica's latest portable headphones.

Colorful headphones from Audio-Technica

Is Style Savvy Nintendo's secret weapon this holiday?

(Credit: Nintendo)

Different games are made for different people. I can understand that. Nevertheless, it's disappointing that Nintendo addressed its new game, Style Savvy, exclusively to girls. An adaptation of a Japanese game that Nintendo has already found great success with, Style Savvy is entirely devoted to fashion. You buy clothes, you sell clothes, you dress up your avatar, and you open your own boutique to sell your fashion solutions to the world. When Nintendo sent its alerts and asked us here at CNET to check out the game, we were slightly less than excited about it. That doesn't seem like great news for a game that's front-and-center in Nintendo's holiday lineup, but then again, we're not the target audience.

This box doesn't exactly scream "buy me."

(Credit: Nintendo)

I am far from interested in fashion, and the box design looked a lot like other DS shovelware released by many, many companies already. To be honest, my colleagues thought I was crazy to even be covering this game in the first place. Still, I was curious. I said I'd give it a try. And so a copy found its way into my DS. And, to my great surprise, it's still in there days later.

First off, this game is a retail/shopping simulator. The main focus is on greeting new customers, listening to their shopping requests, and then recommending a piece of clothing to fit their budgets. It might sound boring, but the reward is guessing right and getting a very satisfied customer who might buy even more, adding valuable income to your supply. With that money you buy more items from the design center (10,000 items cycled by season and randomness adds up to an Animal Crossing level of diversity). An in-game fashion magazine even shows off new fashion trends for the season, which parallels actual time.

The game starts you off as a store employee and then puts you in charge of your own store, where you try to succeed as well as you can. Everything you wear and how you behave also affects your performance, creating a surprisingly casual, yet deep, experience...and as you can see, I pretty much became hooked. I'm not embarrassed to admit that. The game is also controlled via stylus and with the DS turned on its side in "book" format. Its pace is slow enough for a subway ride, and the many small interactions create a persistent microgame that can be played in intervals as small as a minute.

My main issue, however, is that this game is officially targeted at girls. ... Read More

(Credit: Sinapsis)

I know many of you think we bloggers are pimple-faced, bloated nerds who live in our mother's basement and survive on Fritos and Mountain Dew. While that is certainly true for some of us (Hi, Devin!), it's not the case for all of us. In fact, many tech bloggers, myself included, are socially well-behaved people. Who drink beer. A lot of beer.

And sometimes we have occasion to swap our T-shirts for button-downs and ties. But as geeks, we prefer that everything, including clothing, has a utilitarian angle. Thus, the After Office Tie by Argentinian design house Sinapsis.

It's a regular black tie for wearing to conventions, meetings, interviews, parole hearings, and other things bloggers need to attend. But unbutton your jacket and you see the magic: a bottle opener integrated into the tip of the tie. Imagine, no more church keys taking up precious room on your key ring where an eighth USB drive could be clipped!

Sadly, the After Office Tie--an entrant to a Designboom competition whose winner will be announced October 4--is just a concept at this point. Until then, we can wear the ThinkGeek Power Tie. Also, more photos of this handsome be-mulleted man after the jump.

Welcome to Far-flung Tech, an exploration of far-out and faraway technology!

Japan's HRP-4C "cybernetic human" is designed for entertainment.

(Credit: AIST)

All eyes were on the stunning solar eclipse this week, but the Japanese were mesmerized by a new star on the catwalk.

Fashion designer Yumi Katsura showed her latest wedding dresses in Osaka including a gown sported by the government's newly developed "cybernetic human," the HRP-4C, which Crave first told you about in March.

4C slowly shimmied down the 10-meter catwalk to the beat of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." She turned to look at attendees and said, "I've put on a wedding dress for the first time. I'm very happy today to wear this dress by Yumi Katsura."

At a photo op later on, the blushing bride stood next to Katsura and blinked at photographers snapping her picture. Check it out in the video below.

Organizers were billing the event as the first of its kind in the world, and I can't recall another example of a humanoid robot showing off wedding apparel in a fashion show.

It also demonstrated how the Japanese continue to nurture a playful spirit in their approach to robotics. While other countries are building Terminator-style killing machines, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) created 4C to work in the "entertainment industry." Perhaps a dubious use of funds by a deeply indebted state, the project was announced with the admission that "(1) robots walking on two feet only have little commercial value, (2) the unit price is very high, and (3) if it falls, it may be seriously damaged."

Not on my head.

(Credit: Think Geek)

The headline on this Dvice post about Think Geek's Wi-Fi-detecting hat says the cap will make you "king of the geeks." And maybe it will. But you can have that title, my liege; I'd rather get dates.

Not to say your crown isn't cool, technically it is. I mean, it has a fully functional Wi-Fi detector built in. So while you may never know if you've found decent coverage (unless you're staring into a mirror), at least all the girls around you will know. But since they won't be talking to you, it doesn't really matter.

OK, maybe I'm being a little hard on this thing, but again, I'm not cracking down on the hat, just on those who'd wear it around. It's really just a $14.99 way to advertise, "Look at me, I'm a geek! Ha! Look, geek here!" But if you're the type who'd wear this, I'm fairly sure the Utilikilt and BlackBerry holster would give it away anyway.

Extreme sports and music go hand in hand, so it's not surprising companies such as Skullcandy and Nixon take advantage of this relationship to market headphones to teens and young adults with an interest in such activities.

Now you can add Roxy to the list. The female-centric surfwear maker has teamed up with JBL to offer a line of stylish earphones aimed at young women. The middle-of-the-road model is a canalphone called the Reference 250 earphone that sells for $40. This reasonably priced set offers the best value of any of the headphones in the Roxy line, and sound quality isn't half bad.

Read our full Roxy Reference 250 earphone review.

Roxy Reference 250 earphones photos

Look, he has his mother's nose!

(Credit: CuffLinks.com)

Alas, we didn't spot the Sonogram Photo Cufflinks in time for Father's Day. But they'd still make a great little gift for proud pops-to-be, no matter the occasion.

As the name suggests, the cufflinks feature ready-to-wear images of your budding bundle. Sure, you could carry those early pictures in your wallet, but the cuffs make the shots readily viewable every time you shake someone's hand or gaze down at your wrists (which will likely be often).

The cuffs go for $65 a pair, and take about three weeks to arrive. You can send in a different photo for each cufflink--a nice option for those expecting twins or wanting a different view of the little one on each wrist.

My co-worker Steve, a new(ish) dad, said he'd like the Sonogram Photo Cufflinks even better if they featured a live feed of baby in utero. Maybe next Father's Day.

(Via InventorSpot)

Extreme sports and music go hand-in-hand, so it's not surprising that companies such as Skullcandy and Nixon take advantage of this relationship to market headphones to teens and young adults with an interest in such activities. Now you can add Roxy to the list.

The female-centric surfwear maker has teamed up with JBL to offer a line of stylish earphones aimed at young women. At the top end of the spectrum are the still-affordable Reference 430 headphones, an on-ear set that lists for $70. They're not particularly comfortable, and the bass may not be thumping enough for many, but the colorful style has a good chance of appealing to the target audience.

Read the Roxy Reference 430 headphone review.

Roxy Reference 430 headphones--photos

(Credit: ThinkGeek)

Twitter is great, but there usually comes a time when phenomena like it jump the proverbial shark. The fact that these T-shirts from ThinkGeek exist could mean Twitter is approaching that point, but I do kind of want one anyway.

The brown and blue shirt essentially turns you into the Twitter "anonymous" icon, or the default Twitter profile image for people who haven't uploaded their own pic (I use my CNET headshot, natch!).

The icon's pictured to the left, but for those who don't know it, it's o_O. Just like that. It's an emoticon, really, that resembles a surprised gerbil.

The shirt sells from $15.99 to $17.99, depending on size, which I feel is blatant discrimination. I'll check ThinkGeek's Twitter feed for an apology.